What they're saying about State of the Union

AP foreign, Wednesday February 13 2013

The Associated Press= Some reaction from members of Congress to the President Barack Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night:

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"Presidents in both parties — from John F. Kennedy to Ronald Reagan — have known that our free enterprise economy is the source of our middle class prosperity. But President Obama? He believes it's the cause of our problems, that the economic downturn happened because our government didn't tax enough, spend enough and control enough. And, therefore, as you heard tonight, his solution to virtually every problem we face is for Washington to tax more, borrow more and spend more." — Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, in the official Republican response.

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"Our focus must remain on creating jobs, building up our middle class and supporting families who struggle. There are so many proven ways to accomplish this — many of which were mentioned tonight. We need to boost our workforce by investing in education so students can afford to get a degree or the best training for the jobs of today and tomorrow. We need to invest in manufacturing to help local businesses grow and hire more workers. And we need to invest in infrastructure to make sure our country and state have the transportation and technology to compete globally." — Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.

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"Each year the president has promised, pledged and pivoted, but American families continue to confront persistently high unemployment, rising health care costs and the prospect of losing more of their hard-earned paychecks to tax increases." — Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

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"I support the president in his determination to advance the rights of all Americans. Issues such as immigration, gun control and election reform must be addressed this Congress. We cannot sit idly by and allow the rights of individuals to be denied by discriminatory laws." — Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla.

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"Once again President Obama failed to look the American people in the eye and tell them the truth about our perilous financial condition or the egregious waste of taxpayer dollars that occurs every day. Excessive debt is pulling down growth, destroying jobs and incomes and threatening every American worker. The president's policies are creating dependency and poverty." — Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.

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"The president laid out his vision for a safer, more inclusive and more prosperous America. House Democrats are united in our commitment to create jobs by growing the middle class, to fix our broken immigration system and to protect our kids by reducing gun violence. Unfortunately, tea party House Republicans continue to stand for extremism and chronic chaos, blocking these important solutions and leaving the middle class out in the cold. " — Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., chairman of House Democrats' campaign arm.